Chapter 4 DATAFLOW ANALYSIS FOR REAL-TIME EMBEDDED MULTIPROCESSOR SYSTEM DESIGN

Keywords: Dataflow analysis techniques are key to reduce the number of design iterations and shorten the design time of real-time embedded network based multiprocessor systems that process data streams. With these analysis techniques the worstcase end-to-end temporal behavior of hard real-time applications can be derived from a dataflow model in which computation, communication and arbitration is modeled. For soft real-time applications these static dataflow analysis techniques are combined with simulation of the dataflow model to test statistical assertions about their temporal behavior. The simulation results in combination with properties of the dataflow model are used to derive the sensitivity of design parameters and to estimate parameters like the capacity of data buffers. real-time, dataflow analysis, multiprocessor system, predictable design, systemon-chip 1

Impact of sex-specific target dose in chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction

Aims A recent study suggested that women with heart failure and heart failure reduced ejection fraction might hypothetically need lower doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers ( = renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors) and beta-blockers than men to achieve the best outcome. We assessed the current medical treatment of heart failure reduced ejection fraction in men and women in a large contemporary cohort and address the hypothetical impact of changing treatment levels in women. Methods This analysis is part of a large contemporary quality of heart failure care project which includes 5320 (64%) men and 3003 (36%) women with heart failure reduced ejection fraction. Detailed information on heart failure therapy prescription and dosage were collected. Results Women less often received renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors (79% vs 83%, p 100% of the new hypothetical target dose would be 24% for beta-blockers and 52% for renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors, which can be considered as relatively overdosed. Conclusion In this large contemporary heart failure registry, there were significant but relatively small differences in drug dose between men and women with heart failure reduced ejection fraction. Implementation of the hypothetical sex-specific target dosing schedule would lead to considerably more women adequately treated. In contrast, we identified a group of women who might have been relatively overdosed with increased risk of side-effects and intolerance

Impact of sex-specific target dose in chronic heart failure patients with reduced ejection fraction

Aims: A recent study suggested that women with heart failure and heart failure reduced ejection fraction might hypothetically need lower doses of angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors or angiotensin II receptor blockers (= renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors) and β-blockers than men to achieve the best outcome. We assessed the current medical treatment of heart failure reduced ejection fraction in men and women in a large contemporary cohort and address the hypothetical impact of changing treatment levels in women. Methods: This analysis is part of a large contemporary quality of heart failure care project which includes 5320 (64%) men and 3003 (36%) women with heart failure reduced ejection fraction. Detailed information on heart failure therapy prescription and dosage were collected. Results: Women less often received renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors (79% vs 83%, p 100% of the new hypothetical target dose would be 24% for β-blockers and 52% for renin-angiotensin-system inhibitors, which can be considered as relatively overdosed. Conclusion: In this large contemporary heart failure registry, there were significant but relatively small differences in drug dose between men and women with heart failure reduced ejection fraction. Implementation of the hypothetical sex-specific target dosing schedule would lead to considerably more women adequately treated. In contrast, we identified a group of women who might have been relatively overdosed with increased risk of side-effects and intolerance

Disruption of tuftelin 1, a desmosome associated protein, causes skin fragility, woolly hair and palmoplantar keratoderma

Desmosomes are dynamic complex protein structures involved in cellular adhesion. Disruption of these structures by loss of function variants in desmosomal genes lead to a variety of skin and heart related phenotypes. Here, we report tuftelin 1 as a desmosome-associated protein, implicated in epidermal integrity. In two siblings with mild skin fragility, woolly hair and mild palmoplantar keratoderma, but without a cardiac phenotype, we identified a homozygous splice site variant in the TUFT1 gene, leading to aberrant mRNA splicing and loss of tuftelin 1 protein. Patients' skin and keratinocytes showed acantholysis, perinuclear retraction of intermediate filaments, and reduced mechanical stress resistance. Immunolabeling and transfection studies showed that tuftelin 1 is positioned within the desmosome and its location dependent on the presence of the desmoplakin carboxy-terminal tail. A Tuft1 knock-out mouse model mimicked the patients' phenotypes. Altogether, this study reveals tuftelin 1 as a desmosome-associated protein, whose absence causes skin fragility, woolly hair and palmoplantar keratoderma

Disruption of tuftelin 1, a desmosome associated protein, causes skin fragility, woolly hair and palmoplantar keratoderma

Desmosomes are dynamic complex protein structures involved in cellular adhesion. Disruption of these structures by loss of function variants in desmosomal genes lead to a variety of skin and heart related phenotypes. Here, we report tuftelin 1 as a desmosome-associated protein, implicated in epidermal integrity. In two siblings with mild skin fragility, woolly hair and mild palmoplantar keratoderma, but without a cardiac phenotype, we identified a homozygous splice site variant in the TUFT1 gene, leading to aberrant mRNA splicing and loss of tuftelin 1 protein. Patients' skin and keratinocytes showed acantholysis, perinuclear retraction of intermediate filaments, and reduced mechanical stress resistance. Immunolabeling and transfection studies showed that tuftelin 1 is positioned within the desmosome and its location dependent on the presence of the desmoplakin carboxy-terminal tail. A Tuft1 knock-out mouse model mimicked the patients' phenotypes. Altogether, this study reveals tuftelin 1 as a desmosome-associated protein, whose absence causes skin fragility, woolly hair and palmoplantar keratoderma.</p

A parameterized compositional multi-dimensional multiple-choice knapsack heuristic for CMP run-time management

Modern embedded systems typically contain chip-multiprocessors (CMPs) and support a variety of applications. Applications may run concurrently and can be started and stopped over time. Each application may typically have multiple feasible configurations, trading off quality aspects (energy consumption, audio-visual quality) with resource usage for various types of resources. Overall system quality needs to be guaranteed and optimized at all times. This leads to the need for a run-time management solution that selects an appropriate system configuration from all the application configurations of active applications. This run-time management problem can be phrased as a multi-dimensional multiplechoice knapsack (MMKP) problem. We present a compositional heuristic to solve MMKP, that due to the compositionality is better suited to CMP run-time management than existing heuristics that are all not compositional. Our heuristic outperforms the best-known heuristic to date. The heuristic is parameterized, leading to the additional advantage that it allows to trade off execution time vs. solution quality, and to bound the time needed to compute a solution. The latter makes it particularly well-suited for resource-constrained embedded platforms

Quality-of-service trade-off analysis for wireless sensor networks

10.1016/j.peva.2008.10.007Performance Evaluation663-5191-208PEEV

Fast assessment and management of chest pain without ST-elevation in the pre-hospital gateway : rationale and design

BACKGROUND: For chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation in the pre-hospital setting, current clinical guidelines merely offer in-hospital risk stratification and management, as opposed to chest pain patients with ST-segment elevation for whom there is a straightforward pre-hospital strategy for diagnosis, medication regimen and logistics. The FAMOUS TRIAGE study will assess the effects of introducing a pre-hospital triage system that reliably stratifies chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation into 1) patients at high risk for NSTEMI requiring a direct transfer to a PCI-hospital; 2) patients at intermediate risk for a major adverse cardiac event (MACE) who could be evaluated at the nearest non-PCI hospital; and 3) patients at low risk for MACE (benign non-cardiac chest pain) who could have further evaluation at home or in a primary care setting. METHODS: The FAMOUS TRIAGE study will be performed in three phases. In the first phase an appropriate pre-hospital risk stratification tool will be designed for chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation by means of a retrospective and a prospective study. The second phase of the project represents the external validation of the risk stratification models, and in the third and final phase an optimal risk stratification tool will be implemented into clinical practice. Clinical and economical endpoints before and after implementation of the pre-hospital risk stratification tool will be compared to assess clinical benefit and cost-effectiveness. CONCLUSION: The FAMOUS TRIAGE project is a triple phase study that aims to optimize the pre-hospital management of chest pain patients without ST-segment elevation by providing tools for pre-hospital identification of NSTEMI or exclusion of acute coronary syndrome at home. TRIAL ID: NTR4205. Dutch Trial Register [http://www.trialregister.nl]: trial number 4205